Ulma Haryanto – Despite the recent victories for labor rights, the ballooning number of labor organizations in the country and their susceptibility to being politicized are worrying activists.
Rekson Silaban, chairman of the Confederation of Indonesian Workers Welfare Unions (KSBSI), said on Wednesday that existing regulations made it relatively easy to form national-scale labor unions.
"During protests and demonstrations you can find all sorts of unions, and sometimes the lines between the real ones and those that aren't get blurry," Rekson said in a discussion on labor issues organized by the Jakarta Foreign Correspondents Club.
According to the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration, there are now six national confederations for workers, 91 national-level unions and more than 45,000 regional and sectoral unions registered. Rekson said that to be registered as a confederation, an organization only needed to come up with an address for its headquarters and at least three offices in the regions.
"There will be no verification by the local offices or by the ministry, whether the organization really has 50,000 members like it said, and suddenly this organization has representation at the national level," he said.
Rekson said he wanted more stringent requirements akin to those that apply to political parties. "The [easy] regulations lead to fragmented unions, and having too many unions may destroy the [labor] movement," he said.
The KSBSI, the second-largest confederation in the country, dates back to the 1990s when prominent labor activist Muchtar Pakpahan formed the Indonesian Workers Welfare Union (SBSI) as a sign of protest toward the Indonesian Workers Union (SPSI).
Under late President Suharto's New Order regime, the SPSI was the only approved union. Muchtar himself was imprisoned for about a year in 1994, and again in 1996 for his labor activism. But by 2003 his union had grown into a 300,000-strong group with 350 regional branches, who from then on had called themselves the KSBSI.
However, Haiyani Rumondang, director of industrial relations and social security at the Manpower Ministry, said in the same discussion that following the spirit of democracy, it would not try to prevent workers from forming a union. "We want people to easily form a union. Besides, it was one of the items of the ILO conventions that we ratified," she added, referring to the International Labor Organization.
Rekson also complained that the sensitivity of the labor issue made it prone to politicization. "January's Bekasi unrest was fueled by Bekasi's district head promising to raise the regional minimum wage despite the fact that it has been set by Bekasi's own wage council," Rekson said.
He was referring to the labor protest in Bekasi that saw thousands of workers from about 300 companies block the Jakarta-Cikampek toll road for several hours, paralyzing economic activity in the area.
"It was nearing Bekasi's district election and I could not help but suspect that this was his way to gain favorable votes," Rekson said, adding that he also doubted the "eligibility" of the unions that staged protests on that day.
"Of course workers will always stage demonstrations and protests. Currently it is the only way to make the government listen," Rekson said. "But what happened in Bekasi could mar our movement in general."
Febi Yonesta from Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH) also found himself on the opposing side of January's unrest. "There are many ways to stage a peaceful protest demanding for your rights without obstructing the rights of others," he said.